Former FM Yashwant Sinha decides to retire from electoral politics

New Delhi: Having served as Finance Minister and Foreign Minister in the past, senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha today said he no more fits into the new framework of electoral politics, where “impression” of doing something has become more important than actually doing it.

Former Finance Minister and Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha

“It’s not important whether you are doing something important or not. You have to convey the impression that you are doing something very important and this is where I found I did not fit any more and that is the reason why I decided to call it a day as far as electoral politics was concerned,” Sinha said.

“I left the civil service when I realised that I am not fitting the frame anymore and I have left electoral politics when I realise that I was not fitting the frame,” an emotional Sinha said at a function where he was conferred lifetime achievement award by consultancy firm Skoch here.

“It’s another matter that the party decided to give the nomination to Jayant Sinha (son) and he was lucky that he was accepted by the people of Hazaribagh unlike me because first time they had rejected me,” he added.

“When I look back, I feel that there was a time in my life when I realised that I was not fitting into civil service framework anymore and therefore I decided to call it a day and came into politics purely by accident,” he said.

Yashwant Sinha contested Lok Sabha election from Hazaribagh for the first time in 1984 and lost. He could only manage to get about 10,000 votes.

Sinha served as Finance Minister twice. He was Finance Minister in Chandra Shekhar government and during Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

“The world has changed, it’s a world which is driven by technology, it’s a world which is driven by media today.

“It’s not important whether you are doing something important or not. You have to convey the impression that you are doing something very important and this is where I found I did not fit any more and that is the reason why I decided to call it a day as far as electoral politics was concerned,” he said.